Join us for a weekend kayaking and camping trip!🏕️☀️🛶
Unpack & Kayak offers unforgettable multi-day kayak vacations for friend groups and families. During the day you explore the beautiful region of Maas en Waal by kayak, and in the evening you can camp at our partnered camping.⛺️
The trips are suitable for sports junkies as well as those wanting to relax. We recognize the fact that not everyone has a closet full of camping gear, that’s why we provide you with all the equipment you could possibly need. If you happen to (partially) have your own equipment which you’d like to use, you’re more than welcome to use that instead!
🎟️Tickets are 190€ (buy here) and include the following:
- Train ticket from Beneden Leeuwen to Maasbommel and the way back
- 1x dinner
- 1x breakfast
- Kayak/ canoeing equipment
- Camping gear
- Stay at campsite
- Technique/ Safety Instructions
- bever spotting
- bonfire wood
🗓️Check out the approximate agenda:
Friday
- Arrival at starting location in Maasbommel
- Introduction to the kayaking & canoeing technique; safety briefing; you will be equipped with lifejackets & camping gear and pack the boats.
- A tour guide covers the route options/ some info about the area and answers any questions
- Kayak from the starting location to the campsite
- Set up the tents, etc.
- Spend the day exploring “De Gouden Ham” which is where the trip starts. This is a large river cove, filled with cute picnic spots, beaches, birds, and tucked-away corners where you can raft (hang out) together, and explore the rest of the area.
- Trip back to the campsite & have dinner.
- Around sunset: Beaver-spotting trip. This will be via kayak/ canoe and you will be able to see the beavers swim around in their natural habitat.
- Arrive back at the campsite where you can have a bonfire before heading to bed.
Saturday
- Enjoy a day of kayaking. There will be a couple of different routes to choose from:
— Short distance: explore De Gouden Ham a bit more, go for a picnic, swim, have a drink in the sun, etc.
— Middle distance: 1.5-3 hours to a “stoomgemaal” (steam-powered water pumping station) and back. Sometimes the stoomgemaal has tours, and there’s a cafe there with pretty good apple crumble.
— Middle distance+: 4-4.5 hours to “Batenburg” (a small village upstream over the Maas with some windmills, a ruin of a castle, a nature reserve, etc).
— Long distance: 6-8 hours a very long, very beautiful loop around the region. The loop is 24km and covers essentially every type of waterway that we have in the region. You start on the calm water of the Gouden Ham, then go downstream over the Maas. Once you reach Lithoijen (village) you cross a dijk and kayak between wide open fields where you have the occasional curious cow of sheep that stares at you. That waterway then leads through a small forest, only to end up by a kayaking club in the area. After you reach that you cross the second dijk, get on a canal and you’re on the homestretch back to the campsite. - Enjoy the evening, hangout, have a bonfire & dinner, and head to bed.
Sunday
- Enjoy breakfast
- Optional: sunrise paddle. It’s magical to see the sunrise over the mist while enjoying the silence on the water.
- Enjoy another day of kayaking with different route options (see above)
- Return camping gear & equipment.
- Heading back to Nijmegen with a tired bunch of fellow adventurers who hopefully have a camera roll full of pictures and a mind full of memories!